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Procedure price report · Other therapeutic procedures on eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea

Cutting open and draining a cyst on the eye surface

CPT 68020the billing code this page is about

An incision is made in the clear membrane covering the white of the eye and inner lids to drain a cyst or fluid collection.

Hospitals typically charge $881 cash for this outpatient procedure — the median across 550 hospitals that filed a usable cash price; the average of the middle 60% is $879. Most fall between $244 and $1,912 (20th–80th percentile).

Hospitals
550
States
48
Filings dated
Mar 2023 – Sep 2026
Computed
September 25, 2026
Prices checked
through September 24, 2026

Median: half of hospitals filed less, half more — and it is a price some hospital actually filed. Average of the middle 60%: the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain average, the lowest or the highest price: the extremes in hospital price files are chargemaster artefacts, not prices anyone pays.

What hospitals charge, from cheapest to most expensive

Cash price percentiles, outpatient, across 550 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$179$301$881$1,518$2,671

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 15× what the cheapest tenth charges ($179 vs $2,671).

How the prices are spread

$126 – $175: 22 hospitals$126$175 – $242: 59 hospitals$242 – $335: 49 hospitals$242$335 – $465: 37 hospitals$465 – $644: 23 hospitals$465$644 – $892: 68 hospitals$892 – $1,237: 87 hospitals$892$1,237 – $1,714: 54 hospitals$1,714 – $2,375: 60 hospitals$1,714$2,375 – $3,292: 39 hospitals$2,375median $881price bands are equal on a log scale
Hospitals per price band (498 of 550 — the bands cover the 5th to 95th percentile)
FromToHospitals
$126$17522
$175$24259
$242$33549
$335$46537
$465$64423
$644$89268
$892$1,23787
$1,237$1,71454
$1,714$2,37560
$2,375$3,29239

Against Medicare

Medicare pays (OPPS 2026, national rate)$1,018
Median cash price$881
Cash as a multiple of Medicare0.86×

The Medicare figure is the national unadjusted OPPS rate for this code — what Medicare itself pays a hospital before local wage adjustment. It is a benchmark, not a price anyone is charged.

By state

The median cash price in each state, against the national median of $881.

Alaska: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureAKMaine: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMEVermont: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureVTNew Hampshire: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNHWashington: median $1,450 across 23 hospitalsWA$1,450Idaho: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureIDMontana: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMTNorth Dakota: 4 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNDMinnesota: median $381 across 20 hospitalsMN$381Illinois: median $268 across 20 hospitalsIL$268Wisconsin: median $704 across 37 hospitalsWI$704Michigan: median $764 across 15 hospitalsMI$764New York: median $1,146 across 30 hospitalsNY$1,146Massachusetts: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMAOregon: median $404 across 23 hospitalsOR$404Nevada: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNVWyoming: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureWYSouth Dakota: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSDIowa: median $299 across 18 hospitalsIA$299Indiana: 9 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureINOhio: median $1,021 across 30 hospitalsOH$1,021Pennsylvania: median $728 across 22 hospitalsPA$728New Jersey: median $2,265 across 24 hospitalsNJ$2,265Connecticut: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCTRhode Island: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceRICalifornia: median $2,013 across 52 hospitalsCA$2,013Utah: median $369 across 20 hospitalsUT$369Colorado: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureCONebraska: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNEMissouri: 6 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMOKentucky: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKYWest Virginia: median $110 across 12 hospitalsWV$110Virginia: median $1,271 across 11 hospitalsVA$1,271Maryland: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMDDelaware: no hospital in the corpus filed a usable priceDEArizona: median $2,239 across 10 hospitalsAZ$2,239New Mexico: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNMKansas: 3 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureKSArkansas: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureARTennessee: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureTNNorth Carolina: 2 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureNCSouth Carolina: 8 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureSCOklahoma: median $179 across 16 hospitalsOK$179Louisiana: median $1,413 across 15 hospitalsLA$1,413Mississippi: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureMSAlabama: 1 hospital filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureALGeorgia: 7 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureGAHawaii: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureHITexas: median $881 across 26 hospitalsTX$881Florida: 5 hospitals filed a usable price — fewer than 10, so no figureFL
Cash price by state, most expensive first. National median $881. A state needs at least 10 hospitals with a usable price to show a figure.
StateHospitalsMedianvs national20th–80th
New Jersey NJ24$2,265+157%$1,072 – $5,419
Arizona AZ10$2,239+154%$1,223 – $2,239
California CA52$2,013+129%$1,383 – $2,671
Washington WA23$1,450+65%$299 – $2,026
Louisiana LA15$1,413+60%$438 – $1,796
Virginia VA11$1,271+44%$1,086 – $1,271
New York NY30$1,146+30%$510 – $1,244
Ohio OH30$1,021+16%$888 – $1,104
Texas TX26$8810%$849 – $1,215
Michigan MI15$764−13%$106 – $1,371
Pennsylvania PA22$728−17%$70 – $1,178
Wisconsin WI37$704−20%$328 – $764
Oregon OR23$404−54%$220 – $2,024
Minnesota MN20$381−57%$290 – $964
Utah UT20$369−58%$328 – $410
Iowa IA18$299−66%$228 – $1,213
Illinois IL20$268−70%$210 – $1,264
Oklahoma OK16$179−80%$179 – $482
West Virginia WV12$110−88%$103 – $427
Idaho ID9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Indiana IN9not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Carolina SC8not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Georgia GA7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Mississippi MS7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nebraska NE7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Tennessee TN7not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Missouri MO6not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alaska AK5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Colorado CO5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Florida FL5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Hawaii HI5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kentucky KY5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Massachusetts MA5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Montana MT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Hampshire NH5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Vermont VT5not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Dakota ND4not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Kansas KS3not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Arkansas AR2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
North Carolina NC2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
New Mexico NM2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Wyoming WY2not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Alabama AL1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Connecticut CT1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maryland MD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Maine ME1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
Nevada NV1not enough hospitals filed a usable price
South Dakota SD1not enough hospitals filed a usable price

Hospitals like yours

The same distribution cut by the kind of hospital. Hospital type and ownership come from CMS; a hospital counts as part of a system when its price file is shared with at least one other hospital under the same brand. The national median is $881.

Cash price by hospital segment. A segment needs at least 20 hospitals to show a figure.
SegmentHospitalsMedian20th–80th
Hospital type
Acute care440$1,029$299 – $2,024
Children’s7fewer than 20 hospitals
Critical access103$404$210 – $1,021
Ownership
For-profit42$764$210 – $2,239
Government70$852$195 – $1,457
Non-profit438$881$268 – $1,913
System affiliation
Part of a system466$888$299 – $1,913
Independent84$729$191 – $1,527

Cash price vs list price

Median list price (chargemaster)$1,176
Median cash price$881
Cash as a share of list, median hospital65%

At the typical hospital, asking for the cash price cuts the list price by about 35%. The share is the median of each hospital’s own cash ÷ list ratio, over hospitals that filed both — not the ratio of the two medians above.

The same procedure, inpatient

390 hospitals filed a usable inpatient cash price for this code. The median is $888 and the average of the middle 60% is $983; most fall between $299 and $2,164.

Cash price percentiles, inpatient, across 390 hospitals. Each figure is a price a hospital filed. 10th: one in ten hospitals charges less; 25th: a quarter charge less; Median: half charge less; 75th: three quarters charge less; 90th: nine in ten charge less.
10th25thMedian75th90th
$191$328$888$1,859$2,671

The most expensive tenth of hospitals charges at least 14× what the cheapest tenth charges ($191 vs $2,671).

Of the 424 hospitals that filed this code inpatient, 390 gave a usable cash price; 20 carried a plausibility flag, 0 filed a number their own filing marks as not a price, 0 gave an estimate, and 14 a list price only.

How complete is this

550 of the 3,956 hospitals with a price file in our corpus (14%) filed a usable outpatient cash price for this code, and those are the hospitals every figure on this page is computed from.

What the 605 hospitals that filed this code at all gave us
Usable cash price — counted550
Cash price carrying a plausibility flag — shown on the compare tool, excluded here41
A number the filing itself marks as not a price (a placeholder, a ratio) — excluded0
An estimate rather than a filed cash price — excluded0
A list price only, no cash figure — excluded14
Hospitals that filed this code605

Sections not shown for this setting

  • Since our last snapshot: there is no earlier snapshot at least 90 days older than this one yet.

We last checked these hospitals’ price files for changes between September 4, 2026 and September 24, 2026; the figures were computed September 25, 2026 from filings loaded through September 24, 2026. The percentiles and averages use only the “counted” row.

Related procedures

Part of the Other therapeutic procedures on eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea family.

Hospitals file this code under descriptions such as PR Incise/Drain Conjunctiva.

Method

Source
The machine-readable price files every U.S. hospital is required by CMS to publish, parsed per hospital. Nothing is surveyed, sampled or modelled.
What counts
One cash (self-pay) price per hospital for this code and setting. A hospital’s own filing can rule its number out — a placeholder, a “not applicable” note, a list price standing in for cash — and our plausibility checks can flag a price far below what every other hospital files. Both kinds are disclosed above and excluded from the statistics; on the compare tool a flagged price is still shown.
Statistics
Percentiles are discrete: each is a price some hospital filed. The average is the mean of the prices between the 20th and 80th percentiles. We never publish the plain mean, the minimum or the maximum. A state needs 10 hospitals and a segment 20 to show a figure; otherwise the row shows its count and no number. Medicare is the national unadjusted OPPS rate where one exists.
Names
Procedure names on these pages are our own plain-language titles, not the AMA’s copyrighted CPT descriptors. The code is the identity.

The full rules — sources, statistics, thresholds, limitations — are on the methodology page.

Download this page’s figures: JSON · CSV. Aggregates only — the per-hospital prices are on the compare tool.

Cite: HospitalRates.com, “Cutting open and draining a cyst on the eye surface (CPT 68020) — cash price report,” computed September 25, 2026. https://hospitalrates.com/procedures/cpt-68020-cutting-open-and-draining-a-cyst-on-the-eye-surface